Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray Essay

doubting Thomas Grays poem, Elegy Written in a surface argona churchyard, was first published in 1751. Grays idea of inelegant life as describe in this poem is agrarian and give to the land. He talks of the plow turning the sod and of the sickle mowing tear down the grain. He mentions the plowmen driving their team of draught animals from the fields. He tells of straw sheds and of mess awaking to the crow of the rooster. Gray uses the metaphor of sleep to describe death. He says that those slumbrous no longer hear the voices of children or the touch and the kisses of those loved ones. He describes death as lending a cold ear and those on the spur of the moment as no longer hearing a call to enjoy nor does it hear any words of flattery. Gray comments on the deaths of the rich and powerful, truism that those suddenly argon no better off than the poor dead rustics. He says that the incident that the rich mans finger cymbals are in some fine urn does not allow him to enjoy his sign of the zodiac any more than the farmer enjoys the humble earth in which his bones are placed. Gray takes on the issue of class as a rhetorical device to get his point across that the rewards for both are equal and that death is a leveler of the playing field. He impresses upon the reader the fact that in the humble churchyard may lie the remains of a life that had potential for greatness. He says that many sweet blossoms bloom, live and decompose to dust unseen and unknown by anyone. If I were to be falsehood in the graveyard of the country church I would like to view as Gray say of me that I was a friend of heaven, of course, and that I motto and enjoyed the dawns of my days and lived my life to the fullest. Now that I am dead go forth me sleep in peace and forgive and forget the frailties I displayed on earth. Works Cited Gray, T. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard 1751